16 March 2014

Microsoft Windows 8 Metro, Mozilla Firefox votes NO

The bad news just keeps coming for Microsoft and its debacle OS known as Windows 8:

Mozilla shelves Metro Firefox, cites user apathy toward Windows 8ComputerworldComputerworld - Mozilla on Friday abruptly canceled the release of its touch-enabled Firefox browser for Windows 8, just four days before it was to ship and after two years of work. Firefox for Windows 8 Touch, the browser destined for Windows 8's "Metro" ...

"The move is a vote of no confidence for Microsoft's new interface from a prominent software developer. Microsoft, eager to move to the touch-screen era after being caught flat-footed by Apple's iPhone and iPad, gave Windows dual interfaces -- some would say dueling, since they're so different and customers have found the transition so difficult."

""On any given day ... we've never seen more than 1,000 active daily users in the Metro environment.""

"Very, very few are interested in using the browser on Windows 8's touch-first interface, so Mozilla is mothballing the code and sticking with the older, more popular "desktop" version."

And yet, Microsoft just keeps compounding its mistakes --Six clicks: What we think we know about Windows 9 | ZDNet:Windows 9 will not do away with the Metro design language or the tiled Metro interface/start screen.Metro haters: Windows 9 is not your savior. Windows 9 is still expected to feature the Metro-Style/tiled Start Screen that Microsoft first introduced with Windows 8.According to Windows SuperSite Editor Paul Thurrott's sources, Windows 9 will feature an updated 2.0 version of the Metro design language.The Rebranding Of SOPA: Now Called 'Notice And Staydown' | Techdirt: "The idea is, more or less, that if a site receives a takedown notice concerning a particular copy of a work, it should then automatically delete all copies of that work and, more importantly, block that work from ever being uploaded again. This may sound good if you're not very knowledgeable about (a) technology and (b) copyright law. But if you understand either, or both, you quickly realize this is a really, really stupid solution that won't work and will have all sorts of dangerous unintended consequences that harm both creativity and the wider internet itself. "Sprint Vies for Worst Deal Ever - Digits - WSJ: "Sprint is launching a new prepaid wireless plan. It just may be the worst deal ever. The plan will be available under a new brand simply named Sprint Prepaid. For $45 a month, subscribers buying the Smart plan get unlimited voice and text but no cellular data. All Internet surfing on the plan has to be done over Wi-Fi.. . .Republic Wireless — which buys access to Sprint’s network wholesale and resells it to customers — offers unlimited voice and texts with data over Wi-Fi for $10 a month. That’s the exact same deal on the exact same network for $35 less a month."Google, Microsoft Pressure Asus To Cancel Dual-Boot TabletInformationWeekBrian Krzanich, Intel's CEO, joined Asus on stage and helped show off the convertible, a dual-boot machine that could run both Microsoft's Windows and Google's Android operating systems. Asus envisioned it would be a work machine by day and a personal ...

How Google Confused Basketball Fans With Flu PatientsBusinessweekBig data evangelists love the story of Google Flu Trends. In 2008 the search engine company created a feature that geographically tracks searches for flu-related words over time—presumably words like cough or fever (Google doesn't release the exact ...

Google bricks-and-mortar strategy shouldn't mimic Apple'sSan Francisco ChronicleRushing alone into retail can mean the difference between building an Apple Store (good) and a Microsoft store (bad) or Sony store (very bad). Apple enjoyed several strategic advantages, first and foremost its larger-than-life founder. Steve Jobs was ...

$20 Amazon Prime hike won't scare off customersCNNMoneySam Henry is a tech entrepreneur in Baltimore, who's been using Prime for three years, While he admits Amazon has a disappointingly limited selection of free shows and movies, it's been a good option ever since he quit paying for cable television ...

Microsoft exec cops to 'confused' Xbox One launchChristian Science MonitorLast year, Microsoft took the wraps off the Xbox One, the successor to the best-selling Xbox 360. The hardware was impressive; the usage policies were not. In fact, in the words of one onlooker, it was "a scrambled mess," with Microsoft employees ...

Google Must Face Patent Suit Over Street View, Court SaysBloombergGoogle Inc., (GOOG) owner of the most-used search engine, must face revived claims its Street View mapping system infringed a California company's patents for creating images for visually navigating a geographic area. The judge in the case erred in his ...

Google updates search app on AndroidUSA TODAYBoth Google and Apple (with its Siri app) are focusing hard on voice-recognition technology in a quest to make it a core part of how people use their smartphones to search for things when they are out and about. The idea is that speaking a query into a ...

Google cameras take rafting trip at Grand CanyonSan Jose Mercury NewsThe 360-degree views that went live Thursday in Google's Street View map option once were reserved largely for rafters who were lucky enough to board a private trip through the remote canyon, or those willing to pay big bucks to navigate its whitewater ...